Misbehavior can mask the struggle to learn. Often the first clues that your child is struggling academically are in his disconcerting behaviors. Struggling to keep up in school, even if it doesn’t show right away in grades, uses up a child’s supply of energy and psychological stress sets in resulting in misbehavior that spreads to other aspects of her life.
All of us have stress in our lives and a ready supply of energy - psychic energy, if you will - to deal with everyday stress. Normal stress might include social conflicts, strivings for parental approval, worries around security and dealing with unfamiliar experiences. There’s an energy economy where the amount of energy needed to deal with normal stressful situations is drawn from the supply of energy available. These experiences can make a child feel frustrated provoking irksome behaviors. However, in between stressful episodes, balance is easily recovered and your child likely returns to his usual resilient, responsible, well-focused and competent self.
However, academic struggles draw too much energy and the child’s life starts to get out of balance. He may feel disappointed and defeated. Even away from school, she may become irritable, unwilling to try new things, or irresponsible. At school, he may lose focus, make careless mistakes, use poor judgment, or be disorganized. Sleep may be restless. The child’s social life may become fraught with conflict and/or avoidance.
It is very important to make the effort to try to get to the bottom of the child’s troubling behaviors. Elicit help from her teachers and the school.
Educational therapists are trained to recognize the layers of vexing behaviors that can accompany learning struggles. During educational therapy, the therapist helps the child to recognize how these behaviors interfere with learning and to learn how to work through learning tasks while keeping frustration at a manageable level.